Co-Operative Shopping

[Guest Øskorei]

One of the major burdens on the environment today is packaging. Multinational FMCG conglomerates have, and continue, to ignore the impact and focus solely on the marketability of their range with flashy packets/boxes/jars in order to entice customers into choosing their product over a competitors.

The often-used statement that is used by the ill-informed is 'oh, but it's recyclable, so it's OK'. Sorry, It's NOT OK. Recycling material still uses huge amounts of energy both at the reprocessing stage and the transportation routes (the council garbage truck to the depot, the shipping from there to the recycling factory and the reshipping back to the food manufacturing plant). The introduction of a group-mentality movement towards 'green bags' has shown significant success in reducing plastic shopping bags into the waste stream, but this fails miserably in comparison as we observe a bloated, irresponsible lean towards unnecessary packaging.

Take a look in your local snacks aisle, and find the tube of smith's 'chips' in a hard, blue, plastic container - dimensions are similar to that of Pringles,so one can only assume that the company has launched this product in direct response to their only other competitor in the salty snacks market, Arnott's (who are the Australian distributor for Pringles, even though it doesn't say so on the tubes). For fucks sake, it's a glorified packet of chips. That might take 20 minutes to eat. The tube might take 50 years to decompose in the waste cycle.

Depending on location, many of us can avoid much of the over-packaged products if a small amount of effort is made. How ? By shopping at a food co-operative such as Alfalfa House in Sydney's Newtown. The objectives of Alfalfa House, as taken from their website, are:

• to provide a retail source of wholefoods so that members may have some control over the sources of their food supply;
  
• to provide information on and promote the use of
  • • * low-cost, ethically-produced and packaged wholefoods,
    • * cruelty-free foods,
      
    • * vegetarian foods,
      
    • * vegan foods,
      
    • * organic foods and
      
    • * genetically modified-free foods;
      

   

   

 

[*]to run an ethical, not-for-profit business;

[*]to minimise resource wastage and, hence, encourage reuse and recycling;

[*]to support other cooperatives whose objects are similar or related to the objects of the cooperative; and

[*]to stimulate community development, foster community spirit and promote sustainable living.

 

The way this works is that you bring your own containers and bags into the store, and help yourself to as much or as little of the products as you wish. They are then weighed up at the counter, with the container weight subtracted (it helps if you weigh in the first time, and scribble the weight on your jars for future reference). Staples such as rice, flour, grains etc are kept in huge barrels (which are returned for re-use to the supplier when they are empty) and customers simply scoop out what they need. The wide selection of cleaning products such as detergents, shampoos etc can be pumped straight out into your own bottles. Fruit & vegetables are presented in open baskets and crates, not packaged as is the trend at Woolworths/Coles.

As a co-operative, anyone can join - which entitles you to a discount. You can even volunteer some of your time to help run the place for a further discount (ie 25% off if you work for two hours). It should be mentioned that anyone can shop there, not just members. Although I cannot recall the specific figures, last years profit & loss statement (which all members, including myself, received by post) showed that the operating profits were extremely lean (think in the hundreds, or perhaps very how thousands at most)

There are similar operations running out of Sydney Uni, and also in Katoomba. Any readers in the other major capital cities who know of similar operations are encouraged to add to this thread. If the list is big enough, hopefully the administrator might even make it a 'sticky'

http://www.alfalfahouse.org

I don't think they sell potato chips though, so it's not all great

[teonanacatl]

There is one in cairns near rustys markets. Have lots of stuff, most stuff cost more then at the shops but my mum loves the place.

[Torsten]

Like with so many environmental concepts I don't think 'going backwards' [as most people will view it] will catch on. I think it's great some people do this and I hope more people will, but fact is they are not. Packaging reduction education has been going on for 20 years and has had almost no impact other than a robust recycling program.

I think the solution needs to lie in new technologies. For example, my local fishnchips sells their food on bamboo plates which go into a compost bin. The argument against this is the waste of energy, but I personally don't feel that energy is a big issue - we've just had our head in the sand for too long to understand it properly. So, if you leave energy out of the equation for a moment then there is nothing wrong with consumer goods and packaging that is 100% compostable. Notice that I did not include recycling here as this often involves the use of transport and waste of high quality drinking water, which in my opinion are much bigger issues than energy.

I think the best aim for packaging is to be 100% compostable. This would eliminate the problem with getting peopel to recycle [which is still only a small percentage anyway], and it would not requie any re-education at any level other than the manufacturing level. Surely it is easier to re-educate a few thousand companies than 20 million individuals of varying intelligence.

If plastics were levied for their pollution and for carbon credits we would not have plastic packaging. As a result timber [ie carbon sinks] would be so expensive that we would also not have paper made from old growth forests. No cheap paper and no cheap plastics would dramatically and instantly revolutionise the packaging industry.

There are excellent products already on the market made from cellulose that can replace both paper and plastics in the packaging industry. They are currently only marginally more expensive, so a shift to these technologies would happen instantly even with a tiny carbon tax. In fact, the sheer volumes needed would soon make them the cheaper alternative anyway - if only manufacturers had a good reason to buy them.

So yeah, I agree that recycling is not the answer, but I also don't think that bulk shopping will catch on anytime soon. Composting is the way forward, provided we have cheap, clean energy.

[Guest Øskorei]

The case for food cooperative shopping is not of bulk purchasing, customers can buy as much or as little as they require, and there is no price mark up for small quantities.

100% compostable would include plastics in theory - the importance is the rate of compostability. Less than 100 years is a good benchmark to work towards ! With the store mentioned, 're-use' instead of 'recycle' is the key ingredient to sound environmental practice.The focus needs to be on the whole equation, and rapid decomposition of products is a grand idea, but the energy used in production is still a major concern.

The reason such concepts of earth friendly shopping might no be catching on is due to the majority consumer's helplessness towards crafty marketing. Add to that the dictatorial hold that Woolworths/Coles has over suppliers to gain the best possible wholesale costs, and competition is invariably squeezed out of the market. We only have to observe the devastating effect that new stores have on local business. A place like Alfalfa House cannot compete on a similar scale when their annual profit is a couple of thousand per annum. Expansion becomes impossible, and by this circumstance operations as such will remain as funky little hippy shops without the public profile essential to attract a broader clientele. Which suits me fine personally, but does nothing for a shift in public awareness as to this viable alternative.

[Anodyne]

Alfalfa House also sell bags for those too unorganised to bring their own - paper (non-waxed, I think) & cornstarch, so both are compostable. They used to allow member to leave spare plastic bags & glass jars up the back, but I think they stopped doing that.

Staples such as rice, flour, grains etc are kept in huge barrels (which are returned for re-use to the supplier when they are empty)

Actually, the barrels are the property of the store - they never leave it. They are refilled out the back by volunteers, often from many small plastic bags of the "organic, pesticide-free" product, unless their operation has changed drastically from when I worked there. Also, while they have reasonable prices on some things, most people simply can't afford to buy all their food at 2 or 3 or more times what markets charge. I mean c'mon, $8/kg for potatoes? $130/kg for shiitake which don't even claim to be "organic"?

[teonanacatl]

Yeah I think the problem with people not taking it up is to do with price, in my eyes its an organic/health shop and limiting use of packaging had never occured to me. Some products in wooolies and coles you can just by refill packets for and people seem to have imbraced this. So perhaps the solution would be wooolies and coles offering their food without the packaging. All the fruit and veges we buy arnt packaged at woolies, we reuse the small plastic bags a few times. Meat has to be packaged I think. Go the biodegradable packaging.

Am I the only person who thinks that shredded plastic mixed in with organic matter would make a great multch or garden soil???

[Guest Øskorei]

I stand corrected on the barrels - if Id have thought my wording out in the first instance, I would have noted that error. Of course they're the property of the store - being the many are of a uniform design. What should have been written is that according to a discussion I was having a while back with one of the staffers, they attempt to maintain relationships with suppliers that, where feasible, they will take back the empty bulk containers for re-use. It was stated that they even changed suppliers on more than one occasion because they wouldn't take back the empties.

Living in our plastic-fantastic world, it's inevitable that some stock will arrive in plastic bag packaging. It can't be claimed that the operation is a perfect-deep-green solution, but by comparison to the national supermarket chains, the conscious steps towards ethical trading is practiced deliberately, and without the first consideration to make maximum profit. Woolworths might scope out a new organic product for their range with questions like "How close to cost can get rip the supplier off for?" and "How much profit can we make?" , whereas food Co-Ops would ask "Where is the origin?", "is it organic" and "is it fair-trade"?. Keep in mind that they make no claims as to stocking only organic/biodynamic/GM-Free, it's where & when possible.

It is a precarious balancing act between sourcing ethical products and keeping the end-user costs down. In one instance a few years ago, they had many requests for cashews. However the only sources that could be found at the time were from imported product, which typically utilised forced labour and mistreatment of workers. Apparently there is a chemical excreted in the husks that is transdermally-poisonous, and 'pickers' would develop nasty, painful sores over their hands and often lose their fingers due to the toxins. After which such a time they would be laid off from the cashew farming industry without a cent of compensation, and be unable to work again. The only Australian supplier (at the time) that provided a local, ethically viable supply alternative was solely supplying to the national nut wholesalers like Planters(ie Campbell Arnotts) and Nobby's (ie Smiths). So Alfalfa House could not feasibly purchase cashews at the time. I'm sure I saw cashews in there recently though, so I suspect this may have changed.

They do still have a limited range of spare jars/bottles these days for forgetful shoppers - I actually went in three weeks ago for some dish-washing liquid and forgot to pack a bottle! Due to the size of the store, they can only keep limited stock of them, so these are there more for 'emergency back-up'. As for selling paper bags, this is a great idea - put the onus on the consumer. If Woolworths/Coles were to impose a 10c surcharge on each and every bag, the waste reduction would be recognised within months, as budget-aware shoppers would think twice before leaving home.

Prices can be steep on certain goods, so this is not an alternative for everybody. However we should be comforted to know that the retail cost is not due to exorbitant mark-ups, more that they simply don't have the buying power to negotiate a competitive wholesale agreement when operating in a monopolised marketplace.

Teo, that would be a GREAT solution, WW/Coles/Suppliers pick up the blame and stock goods on a help-yourself basis. Not just Fruit & Veg, but a whole range of other stuff like detergents, grains etc. However it all gets back to the marketing aspect and market share domination of product 'X'. In this case, the suppliers are the ones who would need to instigate change.

[Anodyne]

If Woolworths/Coles were to impose a 10c surcharge on each and every bag, the waste reduction would be recognised within months, as budget-aware shoppers would think twice before leaving home.

Aldi already do this - and you're allowed to take their spare boxes for free. Most people just bring their own bags, or just trolley everything out to the carpark unbagged. They also stock some organic products. Those green polypropylene bags seem to be catching on - alot of people use them now, which helps a bit, but I agree that most of the waste is in packaging. Why does tea need to be in little teabags, in individual paper sachets, packed 25 to a box, which is then wrapped in plastic? Even the leaf tea which is just sold in a foil bag is still packed inside a plastic-wrapped box. And some of those Asian crackers & such are just silly.

Teo, that would be a GREAT solution, WW/Coles/Suppliers pick up the blame and stock goods on a help-yourself basis. Not just Fruit & Veg, but a whole range of other stuff like detergents, grains etc.

Not so sure about that - I'd trust most of the shoppers at Alfalfa House to keep things clean, but not so at a big shop like Woolies. Mixing and contamination would lead to a lot of waste, as well.

Meat has to be packaged I think.

Sure, but the packaging can just be a bit of butchers paper like delis use - it doesn't need to be a styrofoam tray with an absorbent plastic sanitary pad, wrapped in gladwrap.

[shruman]

Those examples sound like pretty good ones, only 2 probs I can think of would be price & availability I dont think there would b a store like that within 600 kms of me.

And i quite like plastic bags saves me buying bin liners of which Ive never seen a biodegradeable option.

[Torsten]

Aldi already do this

Aldi is a german company. German supermarkets introduced a 10c [or more] fee for shopping bags more than 20 years ago. For this they produce a much stronger bag and it is quite normal for germans to reuse their shopping bags over and over. Funny what effect even a mere 10 cents can have on the human psyche. Most don't even resuse them because they are green, but because the object to wasting the money.

Many germans actually use cloth bags, baskets or trolleys. In the cities the supermarkets are smaller and every suburb has one within walking distance. Kinda like 7/11 or nightowl in sydney, but you can actually buy normal healthy food in these.

The thin bags that are used in australia are the worst. They do not encourage reuse at all. They are clearly designed as disposables and that is how they are treated.

[teonanacatl]

i swear ive seen despense your own coffee at woolies or coles. Instead of barrells have it so you enter in a weight and place whatever under it to catch it, prints off a label with weight and price and your done?

[Guest Øskorei]

Funny what effect even a mere 10 cents can have on the human psyche

This is very true. Just like the petrol shopper-docket manipulation of consciousness, where the 'big savings' amount to nothing more than a few cents. Whilst we might say that a family shopping experience at the supermarket might use 10 disposable bags, ie a mere dollar', many would see this as a whole dollar, and do anything to avoid it. To consider the example of Aldi that the above member has commented on, random personal observations would indicate that shoppers are in fact avoiding the Aldi bag-fee and exercising some forethought before leaving home. The same cannot be said for shopper-prole profile at my local woolworths, every time I am walking past there I see nowhere near the same level of reusable polypropylene bags.

So the Aldi surcharge scheme works. It's doubtful whether either the shoppers or the store are inspired by 'being green', more a case of the former saving a few cents and the latter maximising profit. But the nett outcome is positive irrespective of motive. Aldi have actually twisted this into a green-friendly marketing campaign, but so what, if it instigates a change in habits.....

A consideration to the heavy duty bag needs to be examined further though. Work with me if you will on this fuzzy theory... if the Aldi-Type 'strong Bag' (ie still disposable) becomes a mainstay across the retail sector at a fee of 10c, and the bag is say 10 times thicker than conventional bags, we would need to see a 9/10th's reduction in overall consumption for this system to break even from an enviro perspective. That's a big ask, and I wonder if it's being achieved at Aldi already.

The above equation would be practically expressed towards a marked positive shift if the stores imposed a 50c fee ! Public outcry would ensue, no doubt, but if the money were to be invested into environmental research, there could be no blamed levelled at the retailers for shameless profiteering. To be fair to the occasional forgetful shopper, perhaps a 'bag-credit' token could be issued which would allow people to get five bags per month free of charge, with the balance rolling over and accumulating. Once a year, those who have a 'credit balance' could cash it in for store credit at the same rate of 50c per unit.

Teo, I was discussing the coffee dispensing only last weekend with my mother. I remember those - you would select your foil-bagged beans off the shelf, load up the grinder, place the same bag under the device, hit the button and wham, freshly ground coffee. Not being much of a regular supermarket shopper (anyone surprised? ) yet possessing a high level of observation skills, I can't recall seeing these devices for years.

Those examples sound like pretty good ones, only 2 probs I can think of would be price & availability I dont think there would b a store like that within 600 kms of me.

You aren't prepared to travel for days to buy potato's for $8 a kg ? Where's your dedication, mate ?

It's a shame that 'progress', that being the one-stop-shop monopoly of the major chain supermarkets, has squeezed many of the small businesses out of the market. As twee as it might sound in the new millennium, there's something far more enriching about dealing with one's local community, buying bread from the baker, meat from the butcher, fish from the fishmonger and veggies from the green-grocer. Minimised packaging, less transportation and supportive of local economy. Im fortunate enough to be within walking distance of an urban 'village' that has all of the above, bar the fish, and an independent grocer for those items I simply cannot get elsewhere like toothpaste.

[Torsten]

the bags are about 4 times thicker. it feels like more to an untrained finger, but I've been dealing with plastic films a lot lately and that is my estimate from comparing the microns.

in germany bags started at 10c, but are between 20 and 100 cents AU$ equivalent now. Mostly around the 50cents though.

Shopping habits are different in germany. Most people grab a bag or two of stuff EVERY DAY on way home from work. It's a ritual. This means you only need one or two bags and you do this every day. My dad was far from green and I know he used to anally fold his shopping bags every day after emptying them and put them back in his coat pocket. They were basically used till the handle broke [they rarely got holes or split]. not sure what the life of a bag would be, but I'd say 20 or 30 shopping trips would be the absolute minimum. I know some of his favourite heavy duty bags would last several months.

What gets me is the way the green woolies bags are treated. They contain at least 20x more plastic than a normal bag, but you rarely see anyone reusing them. I think the problem is that they are inconvenient and bulky. Aldi bags can be folded up and kept in your coat pocket, the side pocket of your car, the bottom of your handbag, etc [trust me, there are an infinite number of places my dad has found to keep neatly folded bags ] , but the green bags are really only suitable for the boot of your car. Anbd what good is a re-usable bag if it is left at home?

[Micromegas]

Interesting, in Korea the large supermarket chain 'Lotte Mart' charges about 60 Australian cents for a large and very strong plastic bag that can be reused over and over. Shopping once every day or two you would need less than ten of these bags in a year to do your shopping. They hardly ever broke or wore out. I'm not sure many Koreans reuse their bags, I failed to notice, but I certainly did. Now back in Australia I use the 'green bags'. But reusable and strong plastic bags were much more convenient and easy to remember. In my house we must have amassed at least 10 - 20 of those green bags simply through forgetfulness.

Packaging is something that I find quite frustrating when I go shopping... perhaps most of all what gets to me is my inability to solve the problem, to know what to do instead. That makes me feel as if I'm not being as kind to earth as I wish to be. Markedly reducing the packaging we use in our life is a demanding challenge.